


Firewhiskey Hide-And-Seek

by DontDrinkColdCoffee



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Hogwarts, In The Flesh Advent Calendar, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Snowed In, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 15:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2778056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontDrinkColdCoffee/pseuds/DontDrinkColdCoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"As the holidays loomed nearer, Hogwarts sure was expecting a ‘White Christmas’.<br/>Snow had been falling for days, so much so, that even the Hogwarts Express had simply refused to run on the frozen rail, unable to escort the pupils back to London for the Christmas holidays."<br/>The story of how wee sixth-year Ravenclaw Kieren made friends with Slytherin head-girl Amy who roped him into one of Hogwarts many shenanigans during the holidays.<br/>And well, if this means he's getting a bit closer to his crush Simon Monroe, it was probably worth the awkwardness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Firewhiskey Hide-And-Seek

**Author's Note:**

> Written for intheflesh-art's "In The Flesh Advent Calendar 2014".  
> Thanks to cyanidemuse for the pretty artwork, and to intheflesh-art for organising this lovely event. x

As the holidays loomed nearer, Hogwarts sure was expecting a ‘White Christmas’.

Snow had been falling for days, so much so, that even the Hogwarts Express had simply refused to run on the frozen rail, unable to escort the pupils back to London for the Christmas holidays.

The situation had gotten so dire, that the headmistress had agreed to lift the Apparition wards for 2 hours after the last class, so magical parents could pick up their children and spend the holidays with them at home.

Kieren sighed and glanced over the frozen lake.

He had waved his friends good-bye a mere two hours ago and was already bored.

Under normal circumstances, his little sister would tangle herself around his neck by now, squealing “Merry Christmas” and “I missed you so much, Kier” and “Just wait until I tell you what happened the other day, you won’t believe it!”, and his dad would chat awkwardly on the drive home, accidentally spoiling what they would get for Christmas, and when he set foot home, the smell of lamb roast and Jem’s favourite cinnamon tea would fill the air while his mum was humming “Jingle Bell Rock”, and he would sink on the couch and let himself be consumed by the Christmas spirit hanging in the air.

The only Christmas spirit hanging in the air around him at the moment though, was Peeves presenting just another Christmas classic with rather vulgar lyrics, sung off-key but with enthusiasm.

Kieren turned his head back to gaze over the white landscape. Only yesterday it had been so fun to go out and about with Rick, building a snowman, conjuring a tree stump into a small sleigh and toppling over, followed by the longest snowball fight he had ever been in.

But now?

He sighed again.

It would be a long holiday break.

A sudden burst of laughter filled the hallway and Kieren turned his head.

The head girl – or at least Kieren thought it was her – stumbled into the hallway, nearly knocking over the armour of Sir Gallaghway the Gloomy and then ducked behind a curtain next to it.

“Psst!”

Kieren tried to look unaffected by her odd behaviour and just resumed looking out of the window. It was an unwritten rule that you could admire older students from afar, laugh at their jokes and sigh in awe when they said something of importance, but by no means would you be the one to initiate a conversation.

Especially with girls. From seventh year. From Slytherin.

“Psst!”

She made that noise again. Despite knowing better, Kieren stopped ignoring her and glanced into her direction. She was motioning for him to move closer with her hand, all the while mouthing “come over”.

Kieren stepped towards her – was it a hideout? – and crouched down.

“Hi”, she whispered, “I’m Amy.”, and extended her arm in the cosy space to shake his hand.

Kieren took it but frowned.

“Kieren?”, he introduced himself, as if he wasn’t sure whether it was the right response to the question she hadn’t asked.

“Nice to meet you.”, she smiled, then peaked around the corner of the curtain.

“I am frightfully sorry to rope you into this, Kieren, but it is of utmost importance that you stay absolutely still and here with me for a few minutes.”

The look she gave him might have been intended to hold a playful seriousness, but a bit of that was lost by the way she nearly toppled over and giggled.

“Sorry.”, she said, getting herself into a crouching position again, peaking out from the curtain.

“Amy?”, Kieren tried after a beat, unsure what to make of this situation, “Uhm, I’m really sorry, but I think I’m failing to see the point of this, err, endeavour.”

It was not just Slytherins who could use big words.

Amy turned to him with a confused expression before her face lit up again. “Right! I forgot! We’re playing ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’!”, she whispered excitedly, as if that explained everything.

But if anything, this only added to Kieren’s confusion.

“Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek?”

“Urgh, sixth years.”, Amy sighed dramatically, then mocked him with a wink and placed a hand on his arm. “As your head girl I guess it is my duty to let you in on the joy that is ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’, so that this game, both outstanding and compelling in its simplicity, won’t be lost on the next generation of seventh years.”

“Do you always talk like this?”, Kieren interrupted her before he could help himself.

“No”, Amy shook her head with a smile before sitting down in a more comfortable position, “but I might be a bit drunk, so that is that. Anyway.

As a seventh year, you will of course spend your last Christmas Break at Hogwarts, because this castle is simply too brilliant to let go of. Also, it will probably be your first Christmas of age, which means you can go to Hogsmeade and buy all the Firewhiskey you want without having to beg someone else to do it. And then all the Houses get together and play ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’.

To begin, everyone downs a cup of - you have guessed it - Firewhiskey. The last person of each house to finish their cup has to sit down, close their eyes and count to 48 while the others hide somewhere. Now, these four people go look for the others.

If they find someone from another house, they give them another cup of Firewhiskey, which the found person has to down before counting to 48 and resuming the game. If they find someone from their own house, they have to drink the cup themselves instead. Brilliant, isn’t it?”

She was beaming up at him, while Kieren nodded as enthusiastically as possible. No wonder he had never seen seventh years at the Christmas banquet. They had probably been too busy nursing their raging hangovers from games like that.

“So… why hide out here with me?”

“Oh, you had seen me, you were a hazard.”, she laughed. “Can’t have someone coming along asking you whether you’ve seen me, can I?”

“Well…”, Kieren said, “wouldn’t it have been safer to just let me stand there and tell me not to give away your spot instead of talking to me in your hide-out where everyone can hear us?”

“See, this is why you’re not in Ravenclaw, Amy.”

Kieren looked up into the bright light from where the curtain had been pulled to the side, just to blink up into a pair of captivating brown eyes shooting him a wink before settling with a fond expression on Amy.

“Oh, Merlin’s beard, again?”, she grumbled, extending her hand to accept the steaming cup of Firewhiskey the owner of these brown eyes was handing her.

The owner of these brown eyes who coincided to be Simon Monroe, the Hufflepuff Head Boy, Hogwarts most appraised student for running three different societies and introducing a student counselling forum, helping Hogwarts students to cope with their homework, missing their parents or adjusting to the magical world. The Daily Prophet had featured him in a portrait in September, and the Minister himself had thanked him for “outstanding achievements in the often forgotten sector of wizard social work”.

Simon Monroe was as close to being a Hogwarts celebrity as it got these days - without ever having been on the Quidditch team.

Kieren briefly considered pinching himself. How did he end up behind a purple curtain in the middle of an abandoned corridor with the two most popular students of the school?

He settled on blinking instead.

Simon chuckled as Amy handed him back the cup and wiped her mouth before shaking herself.

“How many have you had, darling?”, he asked when she let her head rest on his shoulder, and put an arm around her back.

“I don’t know.”, she said. “5? 7? Too many? How many have you had?”

Simon caught Kieren’s gaze and smiled. “None.”

Amy stepped back and stared incredulously at Simon.

“None!?”, she swayed a little as she attempted to punch Simon in the arm, so he caught her and hugged her tight instead, “You are either too good at this game or manipulating the rules in your favour. I mean, I’m supposed to be the Slytherin here. How do you even manage to stay undrunk?”

All the while she had been speaking, Simon’s eyes hadn’t left Kieren, who had scrambled to his feet as well, unsure whether to leave.

He felt like he was witnessing a rather intimate moment, and the last thing he would need right now was for Simon to get the wrong idea and turn the whole school on him because he had molested his girlfriend.

“I don’t know”, Simon said finally, “Maybe just like you manage to come up with boytoy after boytoy?”

Kieren blushed furiously as Simon grinned at him, and Amy stepped back looking from Simon to Kieren to Simon again.

“Simon, as if I would ever do that when I’m in a relationship.”, she shot Kieren an apologetic look before stemming her fists into her waist and glaring at Simon again.

Simon shrugged and raised his palms.

“It’s not like I haven’t known you long enough to know how you-”, he stopped when he met Amy’s stare. “Care to introduce us?”

Amy snapped out of her composure and tripped a little while turning around: “Oh right, I completely forgot! Again! So sorry, Kieren.” She snickered at having mentioned the name before actually introducing them.

“So Kieren, this is Simon Monroe, the best Head Boy this school has ever seen, and Simon, this is Kieren, whom I have passed the legacy of ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’ onto.” She smiled at Kieren and leaned into Simon’s side.

“Pleasure to meet you, Kieren.”, Simon said, and once again gave Kieren one of these bone-deep stares right into his eyes that Kieren couldn’t help but shiver. It felt as if Simon was searching his entire soul for his intentions towards Amy.

So he just nodded awkwardly, unable to not stare back, and didn’t even attempt to say anything. It would have died on his dry tongue anyway.

After what seemed like an eternity under Simon’s scrutiny, Amy cleared her throat and all three of them looked down in an instant, shuffling their feet.

“Do you feel ready to play on?”, Simon asked Amy and shook her in his arm a little.

Amy sighed but slouched down to the floor again.

“1…”, she began to count while covering her eyes, “2…”

Simon immediately took Kieren’s wrist and ran down the corridor, dragging him up a flight of stairs that was just about to change direction, forcing him to crouch down on there with him until it had settled, before sprinting on and pulling Kieren into one of the Charms’ preparation rooms, closing the door behind them.

Then he let go of him and they both leaned against the door, panting.

Kieren rubbed his wrist and shook his head. This evening just kept getting more absurd.

He looked at Simon, but before he could even begin to ask, Simon just said: “Hazard prevention.”, then peaked out of the room again to check whether the corridor was clear.

Kieren couldn’t help but blush a little. “You know, this was really not like… I mean, I was just standing there and then Amy motioned for me to join her. I would’ve left now! I…”

He trailed off when he caught Simon’s amused expression and his blush deepened. Merlin, this was so awkward.

There he was, trying to convince the guy he might have a had a crush on for an entire year that he was not after his girlfriend. Just how pathetic could your Christmas holidays get after just three hours of them?

“You know, this is not just about Amy.”, Simon said and leaned against the table opposite to Kieren, crossing his arms but smiling at him. “Now that you know the rules, you could tell any seventh year crossing your path about my or Amy’s whereabouts and that’s a risk I’m not willing to take, because I intend to stay sober for the duration of this game.”

Kieren snorted and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, right. As if anyone would ever cross the one boy half the school has a crush on. I might be a bit bored, but not suicidal.”

Simon’s eyebrows shot up. “What was that?”

“I’m not suicidal, thank you very much.”

“No, the other bit.”, Simon kept on poking. He had returned to staring at Kieren from under his lashes again, and Kieren didn’t know whether the fluttery feeling this caused in his belly should make him feel uncomfortable or not.

“Come on, you have to know that you’re popular.”, he sounded more exasperated than he intended to, but that was due the fact that he was reacting so strongly to someone deliberately riling him up. And not even in a way this person had probably intended to.

“I know lots of people know me”, Simon said, propping his arms up on the desk and crossing his legs instead, relaxation seeping into his posture, “I wouldn’t say I am ‘popular’.”

Now it was Kieren’s turn to raise his eyebrows. He knew for a fact that Simon could statistically expect three owls with love letters per day. (And that was not because he had ever created such a statistic over breakfast.)

The silence was broken by a door slamming somewhere outside on the corridor. Simon’s eyes went wide.

“Shit”, he whispered, frantically searching the room for a proper hideout with his eyes.

“Maybe it was just-”, Kieren started, but his breath hitched when Simon placed a finger on his lips, suddenly a lot closer than Kieren remembered him being before.

Simon placed his ear on the door, intent on discerning whether someone was walking down the corridor. The only noise Kieren was hearing were their breaths, both far too uneven and shallow to be missed by someone listening in on the other side of the door. Kieren felt the sudden tension crawling under his collar and stopped breathing altogether when he heard the creaking noise of another door on the corridor being opened.

Simon held his breath as well, panic displayed on his features when he looked at Kieren again.

He slowly removed his finger from Kieren’s lips following his movement with his gaze as if they were suddenly stuck in slow-motion. All of Kieren’s senses amplified when Simon’s gaze finally came to rest on the badge on his chest.

He dared suck in a single breath, then held it again.

“Kieren”, Simon breathed, so quiet Kieren could only because both of them had stopped breathing, “you’re in Ravenclaw.”

Unsure what to make of this statement, Kieren just nodded.

“How good are you at Charms?”, Simon asked, just as another creaking noise rang out from the corridor to them, nearer this time.

Afraid to give them away, Kieren just shrugged.

“Use an disillusionment charm on me.”, Simon pleaded, eyes wide and mouth pulled up into the half-smile his portrait from the Prophet article always seemed to give Kieren, whenever he looked it up. Not that he did that very often.

Even if Kieren would have had any objections, with the smile they just vanished into thin air.

Simon positioned himself in the corner behind the door so it would shield him when opened, and Kieren whispered the incantation just as someone pushed the door open.

“Gotcha! Oh, hi Kier. What’re you doing here?”

Kieren felt like a heavy weight was lifted from his shoulders. The person who had entered the room was Philip Wilson, the seventh year Slytherin Keeper Kieren knew, because Rick, playing for the Slytherin Quidditch team as well, kept dragging him along to the Three Broomsticks with his friends.

“Uhm.”, Unfortunately, this also meant that he would have to come up with an excuse right about this instant. An excuse that didn’t involve glancing at Simon, which was becoming increasingly difficult, as Simon had just resumed staring at him with a little smirk. “Just… practising. Charms. Uh. You know.”

How eloquent. Kieren felt like hitting himself, when he caught Simon looking down to hide his smile from the corner of his eye.

“Cool.”, Phil said, nearly unobtrusively scanning the room, “Say, you haven’t seen any other seventh years lurking around here somewhere?”

“Why, you’re playing ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’?”

It was not that Kieren was a shit liar per se, it was just that he rather avoided it with questions when he could. Just in case anyone ever slipped him Veritaserum, which was not all that unlikely to happen. Most of his friends were Slytherins after all, and they could get a bit drastic.

Phil stopped in his tracks and focused on Kieren for a second.

“You know about ‘Firewhiskey Hide-and-Seek’?”

“Yeah, Amy told me about it.”, Kieren shot him a sheepish smile and shrugged.

Phil sighed and huffed out an exasperated laugh. “Yes, of course, leave it up to my girlfriend to take care of passing on the legacy of ‘Hogwarts most important tradition’ before passing out in a hallway.” He chuckled and shook his head, already turning to leave.

“Alright, Kier, I leave you to practising your Charms. Just… let me know when you see someone, okay?”

Kieren nodded absentmindedly, still wondering what it was about the last sentence that had struck him as odd. Then he looked up to meet Simon’s gaze again and the scales fell from his eyes.

Simon stepped out of the corner behind the door, visibly relieved, and shot Kieren a blinding smile.

“Thank you.”, he said, “You know, I found the breach in the rules, because casting magic to hide yourself is of course forbidden, but it never says anything about someone else using ma-”

“You’re not dating Amy.”, Kieren blurted, unable to stop himself once the realisation had kicked in. Simon looked at him, taken aback and then laughed low in his throat, as if Kieren had just told a dirty joke.

“Of course I’m not dating Amy. What made you think that?”

The blush that hit Kieren’s cheeks was so intense he felt it burning up to his ears. Sheepishly, he looked down and became very interested in what he was doing with his shirt hem.

“You… were acting so protective around her. I thought you…”, but he couldn’t actually bring himself to say maybe were a bit jealous of me. That was just ridiculous.

But apparently he didn’t need to finish. Simon chuckled a bit, shook his head and then placed a hand on Kieren’s shoulder.

“Kieren, look at me.”

Uncertain, Kieren looked up, the sheepish smile still plastered halfway across his face.

Simon’s eyes were warm and open when he said: “That’s how I act around all of my friends. Because I am protective and concerned about their well-being, and I will try to make sure they are alright at all times. And you wouldn’t be here if I would’ve thought you’d threatened Amy’s, believe me.”

As Kieren’s eyes widened, he quickly continued: “I don’t mean this as a threat, it’s just that… wait, did you think I was jealous?”

Kieren looked down again, smiling apologetically and shrugging a little.

He concentrated on the warm feeling of Simon’s hand beside his neck and thanked himself for not flinching away yet.

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, gathering the emotional stability to give Simon an honest answer.

When he looked up again and opened his mouth, Simon was smiling again with a playful glint in his eyes, the same he had seen earlier when he had found Amy and him behind the curtain.

“You really have no idea, do you?”

The low rumble of Simon’s voice settled somewhere behind Kieren’s navel, amplifying the shivers that suddenly sparked down his spine as he realised that Simon’s fingers were playing with the tiny hairs at the back of his neck.

Moulded into place, his mouth formed an ‘o’ upon realisation, but by then he was already leaning forward and closing his eyes to meet Simon in a kiss.

And suddenly, Simon’s hands were everywhere, the one that had played with his hair cupping his scalp and gently gripping his hair, while the other ventured to his hipbone to pull him closer.

Eager now, Kieren locked his arms behind Simon’s neck and turned his head slightly to the right as he felt his lower lip glide over Simon’s slightly chapped ones, opening his mouth.

The mixture of wet and warm along with a musky smell unfurling in his nostrils made him press deeper into Simon, almost toppling them over, to soothe the almost aching fluttery feeling like mini stupefies in his gut.

He had always wondered why people closed their eyes while kissing one another. But now he knew how it amplified all his other senses, and he felt like he would forever abdicate looking at Simon as long as he could smell him, taste him, breathe him in.

When they parted for breath, Kieren kept his head in place, ever so close to Simon that he could see nothing but the glint in his eyes.

“I think I have a fairly good idea now.”, he whispered and allowed Simon to see one of those smiles that made his cheeks dimple.

“Yeah?”, Simon asked, still panting a little, “You really think so?”

“Well, you could always explain the situation further to me, I’m a Ravenclaw, I don’t mind being educated.”

And maybe he also didn’t mind being stuck in a snowed-in castle, he added as an afterthought as Simon turned to kiss him again.

It was Christmas, after all, and who knows what you are going to get?


End file.
